The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Jury awards couple $2 billion in lawsuit against Roundup

For the third time in less than a year, a California jury issued a verdict against Bayer-Monsanto, finding that the company’s Roundup weedkiller caused cancer in a California couple and awarding them $2.055 billion in damages.

The jury in Alameda County Superior Court found on Monday that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, was the cause of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in both Alva and Alberta Pilliod of Livermore, who have used the herbicide since the 1970s.

It’s the third trial since August 2018 in which a jury found that glyphosate caused cancer. More than 13,000 similar lawsuits have been filed against the company.

FTC halts huge Pointbreak Media robocall scheme

At the Federal Trade Commission’s request, a federal court judge ruled against nine defendants and approved six settlement agreements with 11 others ending the massive Pointbreak Media robocall scheme.

In May 2018, the FTC charged the Florida-based defendants with operating a telemarketing scam that targeted small business owners with false threats of removal from Google’s search engine and false promises of unique keywords to make the business appear prominently in search results. The FTC also alleged the defendants wrote themselves $100 checks from more than 250 businesses’ checking accounts without the business owners’ knowledge.

The FTC amended its lawsuit in July 2018 to add violations of the Telemarketing Sales Rule, because the defendants robocalled more than 74 million consumers and called more than 14 million numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry.

States sue 20 generic drug companies and 15 executives for allegedly conspiring to fix prices for more than 100 drugs

A 44-state coalition of attorneys general is suing Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 of the nation's largest generic drug manufacturers alleging a conspiracy to increase prices and reduce competition for more than 100 generic drugs.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court, also names 15 individual senior executive defendants, leaders of the conspiracy, who were responsible for sales, marketing, pricing, and operations. The drugs make up billions of dollars of sales in the United States, and the alleged schemes increased prices affecting the health insurance market, taxpayer-funded healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and individuals who had to pay artificially-inflated prices for their prescriptions drugs.

All types of drugs were included – tablets, capsules, suspensions, creams, gels, and ointments – as well as many classes of drugs – statins, ace inhibitors, beta blockers, antibiotics, anti-depressants, contraceptives, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The drugs treat a range of diseases and conditions from basic infections to diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, HIV, ADHD, and more. In some cases, the coordinated price increases were more than 1,000 percent.

Crowdfunding scheme operator who failed to deliver charged by FTC

The operator of a crowdfunding scheme who told consumers he was raising money to develop a high-tech backpack and other products, but failed to deliver any of the products and instead used most of the funds for himself, is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission.

In its lawsuit, the FTC alleges that Douglas Monahan and his company iBackPack of Texas, raised more than $800,000 from consumers through four crowdfunding campaigns. Monahan falsely claimed the funds would be used to develop products such as the “iBackPack,” which would include batteries for charging laptops and phones, cables, and a Bluetooth speaker.

“If you raise money by crowdfunding, you don’t have to guarantee that your idea will work,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “But you do have to use the money to work on your idea – or expect to hear from the FTC.”

Be careful using Angie’s List, consumer group warns

Angie’s List, an online rating service, has many shortcomings in addition to potential value to consumers, according to a Consumer Federation of America report.

Angie’s List, founded in 1995, was originally supported mainly by annual consumer subscriptions and prioritized service to these subscribers. Today, while consumers can join for free, Angie’s List gets almost all its revenue from advertising purchased by some of the local businesses that the online service lists and rates. Angie’s List recommends and gives preferential treatment to these advertisers and that can easily mislead consumers into thinking these businesses are the best ones and should be selected.

The report, “Angie’s List: An Evaluation of Its Usefulness for Consumers” shows that these profiled businesses are often not those rated the most highly by consumers and by a nonprofit rating group.

American Banker publishes article trashing financial education during Financial Literacy Month

April is Financial Literacy Month, a time when hundreds of organizations and agencies step up their efforts to help people improve how they make decisions about their money.

An ironic article posted on the American Banker website during Financial Literacy Month contends financial literacy education doesn’t work.

Jennifer Tescher, president and CEO of Center for Financial Services Innovation, said in the article that consumers need to “trust that financial institutions have their best interests in mind and are working with policymakers to eliminate systemic barriers that prevent them from achieving financial health.”

Snack box company settles FTC charges on incentives for positive reviews and phony ‘free’ offers

UrthBox Inc. has agreed to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit alleging the company said customer reviews were independent when it provided customers with free products and other incentives to post positive reviews online.

The order settling the lawsuit, which also alleges that UrthBox failed to disclose the terms of its “free trial” automatic renewal programs, bars the company from engaging in these activities. It also requires UrthBox to pay $100,000 to the commission to compensate consumers deceived by the trial offers.

“People should be able to trust that good customer reviews aren’t the result of companies secretly paying the reviewers,” said Andrew Smith, director of the commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Under Trump, enforcement of consumer financial laws drops sharply, especially in areas with the highest complaints

The number of publicly announced enforcement actions under the Trump administration at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is dropping sharply, according to a report by the Consumer Federation of America.

“Law enforcement activity at the CFPB has dropped precipitously under the Trump Administration’s leadership,” said Christopher Peterson, director of financial services for the federation and author of the report.

The bureau is charged with enforcing federal consumer financial law and bringing legal action against companies that violate that law. The bureau also has the authority to seek restitution for consumers and levy fines when it finds violations. The report finds that activity in both of these areas is on the decline – overall enforcement activity is down by 80 percent from the bureau’s peak in enforcement actions in 2015 and average relief to victims is down by 96 percent per case.

Education Department fails to adequately supervise student loan servicers, federal watchdog says

Student loan debt is now the second largest debt in the United States with only mortgage debt higher. And, since 2013, most people aren’t able to discharge their student loan debts through bankruptcy.

That’s what makes a report from the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education, which is highly critical of how the department is handling federal student loan servicers, disturbing. A loan servicer is a company that handles the billing and other services on a federal student loan.

In an audit, the inspector general found that Federal Student Aid, an office of the department, hadn’t adequately supervised student loan servicers.

As Valentine’s Day approaches and throughout the year, watch out for romance scams

Romance scams are different from other scams. Fraudsters prey on lonely people looking to connect with someone, and the scam can often take months to develop to the point where money changes hands. The emotional harm to the victim can be even more painful than the money lost. 

The use of online dating sites and apps has made romance fraud easier. Victims in the United States and Canada report losing nearly $1 billion over the last three years, and the Better Business Bureau estimates there may be more than a million victims in the U.S. Because most people don’t file complaints about romance scams with the BBB or law enforcement, this may a small number of those affected.

The BBB’s study, “Online Romance Scams: How Scammers Use Impersonation, Blackmail, and Trickery to Steal from Unsuspecting Daters,” looks at how romance scams work, who the scammers are, and what’s being done to combat them.